A ‘Top Chef France’ semifinalist is behind a new Santa Monica brasserie
The Oceana Santa Monica hotel is offering a culinary trip to France via a new restaurant with a Top Chef semifinalist behind the kitchen.
La Monique, a French brasserie helmed by “Top Chef France” semifinalist David Fricaud, opened its doors on Oct. 11 in the seaside hotel.
“We want to make elegant food for elegant people,” said Fricaud, who speaks in a heavy French accent. His previous experience includes the executive chef position at Scarpetta at The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas and executive chef at Malibu Beach Inn Hotel and Spa, plus his 2010 appearance on “Top Chef.”
La Monique in Santa Monica aims to make “elegant food for elegant people,” says Executive Chef David Fricaud. (Photo courtesy of La Monique)
At La Monique the chef is offering a menu described as a love letter to French brasserie traditions plus steak offerings featuring A5 wagyu, dry-aged cuts and seafood.
“This is classic French food but we do make it a little but with an American twist,” he said.
Offerings include Linguine Vongole with little neck clams and white clam sauce, an A5 Wagyu Ichibo Cut from Yamaguchi, Japan, and the signature dish at the 14-table restaurant is La Monique’s Le Grand Poulet, a chicken dish made with sautéed fingerling potatoes and truffle jus.
La Grand Poulet is the signature dish at La Monique, a French brasserie that recently opened in Santa Monica. (Photo courtesy of La Monique)
“For me it’ll take you to a Sunday lunch with your family in France. It’s juicy, has lots of flavor, it’s got a great smell,” Fricaud said.
A dish that combines classic French fare with an American twist is the escargot poppers, made with garlic herb crème fraîche. The chef creates escargot poppers with cheese and the garlic herb crème fraîche is inside the escargot shell, which is meant to be consumed like a shot.
“It’s become our best seller so far,” he said.
Seafood lovers will want to try Le Plateau Royal, a seafood tower featuring New Orleans shrimp, raw oysters, raw clams, lobster, shrimp cocktail, crab cocktail and caviar. Also on the menu is a tuna carpaccio made with thinly sliced tuna, lemon, parsley and garlic.
“This is something you see a lot on the South of France, and here we are on the beach, we are in Santa Monica so it’s perfect here,” he said.
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